An Opportunity to Share Knowledge
Our nursery is a member of the Michigan Nursery and Landscape Associate (MNLA) and more currently a member of the Northern branch of the same organization (NMNLA). We were fortunate to host a planting, pruning, plant I.D. workshop this week. This was the third consecutive year hosting this workshop. Most of the young people there had not been to earlier workshops and that pleased me greatly.
Before filling you in on what went on during this 3 hour workshop, I want to give a big thank you to MNLA, our industries statewide organization and Amy Upton, as the Executive Director has attended and help set up all three of the workshops. Amy makes the trip north from the Lansing area to help. The associations work for the nursery industry and Amy’s tireless work is recognized throughout the nursery industry in this state. Another person that needs acknowledgement for this workshop is Matthew Ross, Executive Director of the local botanic garden. His energy and knowledge is “off the wall”. We are so lucky to have this man as our director of the botanic garden and also as a board member of the NMNLA. He understands the value of training young landscapers in property practices; they might be a volunteer in the future.
Our workshop is a program Matthew and I put together to help the next generation of landscapers to learn proper planting practices, how to load a truck, tie up plants to protect from broken branches, why to use good compost, pruning practice (when and how to prune). We had landscapers from as far away as Petosky but most from our area. Matthew always provides food, coffee, ect. to participants. We had many young landscape recruits, eager to learn. After I explaining some of my landscape philosophies; we discussed planting technical, talked of proper tools to use and why using good compost for planting is so important. At that point all participates were ready to for a break. The next part was having them join us in the nursery to be a part of planting practices. Earl and my son Matthew demonstrated the first planting, a 7’ Serviceberry in a wire basket. They did a great job walking all the participants through the protocol we use. Then we let participants install a smaller tree.
Then Matthew led the participates into the nursery to I.D. plants. Matthew and I picked out some tough ones and some easy ones. He was so good in educating the group to look for characteristic of the plant that might help give away the I.D. And of course, I couldn’t help but give them subtle clues, which Matthew probably wished I have kept my mouth shut. What our goal was in the plant I.D. was to get the youth of the industry to look at the plant. As Matthew told them, “Introduce yourself to the plant, “Walk up and shake its hand”. Of course, a metaphor but you get the message.
What pleased me the most about the workshop is how the organization of MNLA that represents the state, our local organization NMNLA, the leadership of the botanic garden and a local nursery have found a way to team up and help these young landscapers learn a trade and consider it a profession. It starts with love for what you do which leads to your quest to learn and to use your local resources to learn. As an older person there is so much to teach and so much to still learn. Plants have a way of teaching us how little we really know about them and that’s why this industry is so dynamic…you can never know it all.
